


Hold you close

by hanatsuki



Category: Free!
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanatsuki/pseuds/hanatsuki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin is supposed to meet Haru outside the station, it's just that he never shows up...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> Um, ok, so, this is actually supposed to be a fluffy christmas fic. But since it became so long I decided to split it... so yeah. In the next chapter there will be actual christmas stuff! ;u; and bad title is bad...

Rin was getting impatient. He was waiting outside the station where he had promised to meet Haru. It was really cold outside, his nose and cheeks were turning red. The snow had piled up quite a bit and wherever he looked everything was white and glimmering. Everything was so pure and innocent, whilst the bare branches on the trees did not give much sign of life. Although he didn’t want to really admit it, Rin really loved the winter. Every time the season was around the corner he’d say that he hated snow and that he didn’t want any, but in the end he got childishly happy when it piled up.

Though, just standing around in one place like this didn’t feel very nice. He breathed on his hands and rubbed them together to try and get them warm. In his excitement to meet Haru he had rushed out without thinking much and had forgotten to wear gloves. Shivering a bit, he pulled the muffler around his face tighter, as if that would make him warmer. Haru was really late though. Well, he usually was, but not this late. Getting a bit annoyed, he fished his phone out of his pocket to check if there were any missed calls or messages. None. Damn it, might as well try and call him, Rin thought. He dialed Haru’s number and waited, he got through but no matter how long he waited no one picked up. He frowned, Haru had gotten better at using his phone and would always at least pick up when he called. What if something had actually happened to him...? Shit! Rin thought and started to head in the direction of Haru’s house.

When he arrived at Haru’s house, instead of ringing the doorbell as he would usually have done, he just yanked the door open. Whilst slamming the door shut and taking of his shoes and jacket he called Haru’s name loudly. There was no answer. This was just way too strange. Something wasn’t right, he didn’t know what, but something was definitely not right. The pounding in his chest grew louder and louder. What if he had fallen asleep in the bath and drowned...? No, no, no. Don’t think like that! He thought to himself. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but it was actually really cold inside. Shivering a little, he walked to the stairs and headed straight for the bathroom, expecting the worst.

Expecting to find Haru asleep in the bathtub, since the door to it was even closed, he sighed with relief when he saw that it was empty. The worry didn’t go away completely, though. Panic was creeping into his veins. The bedroom it is, then, he thought and walked briskly to it.

As he opened the door, Rin thought to himself please, please, please let him be in here! And there he was. There was just a black mop of hair visible in the bed, but it was definitely Haru. Rin’s panic washed away in an instant and he called out aloud “Haru!” but there wasn’t even a slight movement from the bed. He walked over to Haru to see why he hadn’t even recognized his presence. When he got close enough and sat down on the side of his bed, it was when he noticed. Haru’s face was completely red and he was breathing heavily, almost panting. Small trickles of sweat ran down his cheeks and his bangs were plastered to his forehead.

Rin’s eyes widened at the sight before him. Haru was actually really, really sick from what he could see. He slowly reached out a hand and gently slid Haru’s bangs away from his forehead, and put his hand on it to check the temperature. It was burning. Oh god, what am I supposed to do now, Rin thought. It had always been the other way around, him getting sick and Haru nursing him back to health. “Haru” he said. No response, just eyes that twitched but didn’t open. It was quite weird to see Haru like this.Vulnerable and defenseless. There was always this composed and collected feel around him, and the face that still didn’t really show much emotion. Well, I can’t sit around here doing nothing. I should at least try and cool him down somehow, Rin thought.

  He tried remembering what Haru had done for him the times when he had been sick. There wasn’t much recollection to go after. The times he was sick it was so bad he barely remembered anything. He got up from Haru’s bed and scratched his neck and sighed. Before leaving Haru’s room to get something to cool him down, he leaned down and kissed Haru’s forehead gently. Maybe an ice-pack will do, Rin thought as he left the room and started down the stairs for the kitchen.

He grabbed an ice-pack he found in the freezer and thought of taking a glass of water with him and medicine, but he had no idea of where the guy kept such stuff. Tch, how troublesome. The ice-pack will have to do, Rin thought. It wasn’t easy to take care of a sick person when he didn’t really know what to do. He thought that Haru probably hadn’t eaten, but what would the point be of cooking some food if he didn’t even get up? Not that he was really good at cooking either. He walked back to Haru’s room and sighed heavily. The worry still wouldn’t leave him, it had come back when he saw Haru’s weak form in his bed.

When he got back into Haru’s room, he was still as he had left him. He walked over and gently put the ice-pack on Haru’s forehead. That seemed to calm Haru down a little, his breathing became a bit softer after a while. Rin sat down on the side of Haru’s bed and idly wondered what Haru would do on the days he was sick. It’s not like there was anyone around to take care of him, well, there was Makoto of course. But he might not always have the time to take care of Haru. Makoto had two younger siblings already. It must have been lonely being sick in this big house all alone, Rin thought. He gently brushed his hand against Haru’s cheek, and at that his eyes fluttered open. They were glassy with fever. Rin gently cupped Haru’s face with his hands. “Rin...Sorry...” Haru said in a barely audible voice.”Shh. Don’t talk, just rest. It’s fine, you’re sick” Rin replied with a soft voice. At that Haru’s eyes fluttered closed again and he seemed to relax ever so slightly.

Rin watched as Haru’s features softened and the way he sighed before falling asleep again. Not wanting to leave the guy on his own, Rin made a quick decision and lay down on his side besides Haru. The bed was big enough and Haru just moved slightly but didn’t wake up from his deep slumber. Feeling a bit tired himself and lulled to sleep by Haru’s deep breathing he soon found himself drifting off to sleep. In a matter of minutes he was out like a light, sleeping heavily himself.

When Rin awoke and slowly opened his eyes, he found himself staring into dark blue eyes. Still a bit groggy from sleep, Rin just whispered “Haru...?”. Haru didn’t say anything and just silently stared at him. Then it hit Rin, he had gone to Haru’s house because he never showed up at their meeting place, and he had found him sick with a fever in bed. Slowly, he reached out a hand and held his palm flatly against Haru’s forehead to check if his fever had gone down. It had, and Haru’s face wasn’t covered with sweat either. He sighed with relief and withdrew his hand, only to be held back with Haru now grasping his wrist weakly. He watched as Haru kissed the back of his hand and mumbled “Sorry” whilst doing so. “Don’t say that, it’s not your fault that you got sick” Rin said. Haru let go of his hand and Rin wrapped his arm around him and drew him in a close hug and lightly brushed his lips against Haru’s. “Don’t, you’ll catch my cold...” Haru said. “No, I won’t” Rin simply replied. He then continued to shower kisses all over the other’s face. Absently, he thought that Haru’s face was still really hot, but not as bad as a few hours ago.

Rin let go of Haru and abruptly sat up. “Maybe I should leave” he said and looked at the clock at the bedside table. “Don’t...” Haru whispered hoarsely. “Huh?” Rin just replied, not sure if he had heard him correctly. “Don’t leave, please stay...Maybe I’ll feel a bit better tomorrow...” Haru said again, this time a bit louder. Rin hadn’t intended to leave anyway, but he wasn’t sure if he should stay either. He raked his hands through his hair and then said “Okay, I’ll stay with you...”. It still felt a bit weird to have Haru act like this and Rin felt his cheeks burning. He had averted his gaze from Haru but now glanced at him in the corner of his eyes, and aside from the tint of red that adorned Haru’s face from fever, there was a soft smile. Somehow, a sick Haru was more cute than he would have thought and he quickly put his hands on his face to cover the beet-red color of it.

There was a tug on Rin’s sleeve and he glanced down to see Haru tugging it lightly. Just one look at his face made Rin understand exactly what he wanted, and so he lay down beside so close that their noses touched. Rin could feel Haru’s hot breath against his lips, and then Haru surprised him by quickly brushing his lips against his. Wanting to hide his embarrassment, Rin put his hand behind Haru’s neck and drew his head to his chest. With his other hand he wrapped it around the others waist and entwined their legs together. They were now as close as they could be, and Rin couldn’t care less about the fact that he might catch Haru’s cold or the now really loud beating of his heart. He noticed that Haru sighed in satisfaction. Before long, both of them were in a blissfull deep sleep and Haru had put his hands against Rin’s chest.    

  

 


	2. Chapter two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter is the actual Christmas stuff. I'm not too happy with how it turned out, but oh well. Enjoy!

When Rin woke up the next morning, the first thing that he noticed was that the space next to him was empty. He hated it, waking up alone. That was something he had never told Haru, and wouldn’t do so anytime soon. He rolled over on his back and stretched his arms whilst yawning. His muscles felt sore, probably because he had mostly slept the day before. Yesterday, Rin was supposed to meet up with Haru because they were going shopping together, and going to a Christmas market. That was the sort of thing Rin loved, and Haru knew that. And yet Haru was the one who came up with a cold and in the end they couldn’t go. This was Rin’s favorite time of the year, the snow and being able to spend time with your loved ones. The Christmas decorations that could be seen everywhere with lights and the best of all was the atmosphere. For some reason, people tended to be more happy and overall different, the stress seemed to dissolve. Though Christmas was a time to spend with your special someone, it made Rin a tiny bit sad that they couldn’t show it openly that they were a couple. Even so, just spending time with Haru was enough.

Suddenly, the door to the bedroom opened and Haru walked over to him and sat on the bed. “Good morning” he said softly. “Good morning” Rin replied. There was silence for a while until Haru broke it and said “I’m sorry about yesterday... I knew you were really looking forward to it”. Rin sighed and said “Haru. You’ve been apologizing since yesterday, I’m telling you it’s fine” he paused, then said “It wouldn’t have been any fun without you anyways”. At this he glanced away from Haru and could feel his cheeks turn hot. He scratched his neck, and didn’t notice the small smile that appeared on Haru’s face. Then Rin remembered something, Haru was sick. “How do you feel?” Rin asked now and looked Haru in the face, concerned. “I’m fine, I think” Haru replied. Which might as well be true, his face wasn’t as red as it had been yesterday and he somehow looked, refreshed, rather than sick.

“Have you already taken a bath?” Rin asked. “Yeah” Haru replied simply. “You could have at least waited for me...” Rin murmured. Haru, who had actually heard that, said “Well, someone was sleeping soundly and looking adorable...” Rin sat up in the bed “Wha-“ he sputtered but was interrupted by Haru who gently brushed his lips against his. Cupping Rin’s face with both hands, he broke the kiss and said “Come on, let’s go downstairs. I’ll show you something”. Rin averted his gaze from Haru’s deep blue eyes. “Ugh, fine...” He said.

Rin had no idea what Haru was going to show, and it was kind of weird. Haru wasn’t very fond of surprises, he had found out. It was always Rin who did that sort of thing. Like trying to cook mackerel for him and fail miserably, or buy small gifts for him on a whim. He wasn’t even actually sure if Haru liked those sorts of things, but he never protested so Rin guessed it was fine. That look of surprise on Haru’s face was something he really loved, since Haru never really showed any emotions on his face. Even though they had been going out for a while now. Getting Haru to show his emotions was really entertaining. Haru always beat him by saying stuff that made him really embarrassed, and he would always wonder how he could say such things with a, most of the time, straight face. It puzzled him. Whenever he tried saying something cute, or romantic, he always ended up in a hot mess and stammered.

Rin was interrupted in his thoughts by Haru who took his hand and entwined their fingers. Haru stood up and tugged lightly at their entwined hands, to make Rin follow him. Rin just frowned in confusion but got up from the bed anyways and let Haru lead him down the stairs to the living room. Rin yawned once again, still feeling a bit sluggish. Then he noticed that Haru had stopped and looked at him expectantly. Rin just stared at him in confusion, and then Haru nodded in the direction of the middle of the room. Rin’s eyes widened in shock, to say the least. Because, in the middle of the living room, was an enormous Christmas tree, yet to be decorated. It wasn’t one of those plastic ones either, but a real tree. Rin was so fascinated that he just stared at it, gaping. He idly wondered of Haru had even gotten the thing inside the house, because it definitely hadn’t been there yesterday. Spread around the tree on the floor were several boxes, and Rin could just guess that they contained the decorations for the tree. Beside him, Haru took a deep breath and said “Do you... want to decorate it together?” hesitantly.

Rin broke from the spell he was under and without thinking drew Haru in for a bone-crushing hug and laughed all the while. “Hell yes!” he said. Rin couldn’t be happier. Never in his wildest imaginations could he have thought Haru to come up with this sort of surprise, sure, they were going to spend Christmas together but they hadn’t really talked about what to do together. Rin had always envied those who could spend this holiday with their special one. This sort of thing made him beyond excited. Every year since he lived in Australia, he had mainly come back for New Year’s and not Christmas, since he spent that holiday with his family.

Then, there was an embarrassingly loud rumble coming from Rin’s stomach. Since they were still hugging each other tightly, there was no way for Haru to miss that. Rin buried his head in the crook of Haru’s neck and he could literally feel Haru’s body shake from trying not to laugh. Ugh, why did my stomach have to make such a loud sound at this moment, Rin thought. Out loud he said “Don’t laugh...” “Am not” Haru said, whilst stifling laughter. “You’re obviously laughing!” Rin said and Haru actually started laughing even more at that. Not being able to help himself, Rin jerked his head back and looked at Haru’s face. His lips curved into a soft smile and feeling a bit cocky he said “You should laugh, more, you know”. Instead of answering, Haru just grabbed Rin’s neck and shoved his head onto his chest, not wanting Rin to see the red tint that graced his cheeks.

Haru then says “Well, maybe we should eat some breakfast before decorating that tree...” “Yeah...” Rin murmurs. They reluctantly let go of each other and Haru heads for the kitchen whilst Rin sits down, propping his elbow on the table and resting his chin in his hand. There’s no point in even asking Haru if he’s going to make mackerel or if there’s anything else to eat for breakfast. They used to argue about that sort of thibg but since both of them were really stubborn, they always end up eating mackerel anyway. Rin thought that was just one of the things he had to accept, since they got together.

When Haru is finished in the kitchen with breakfast, he strides over to Rin and sets down a plate in front of him, consisting of toast. Rin is befuddled. The silent guy Haru is, he just sits down in front of him, and his plate consists of mackerel. “What is...this?” Rin says hesitantly and points at the contents on his plate. “Can’t you see? It’s toast” Haru replies dryly. Rin decides not to answer that and just stares at the toast for a few minutes. This day was sure full of surprises. Still, Rin’s chest swelled and he could feel butterflies in his stomach. He puts his face in both of his hands and thinks that really, is there any better guy than Haru out there? He’s being so cute that he almost can’t take it anymore. If there was more to come, really, he wouldn’t know what to do. He stole a glance at Haru that was wearing his now usual blank expression like this kind of thing was completely normal.

After they had finished breakfast, it was finally time to start decorating the tree and Rin still hadn’t gotten over how big it was. They walked over to the boxes of various sizes that were scattered on the floor around the tree. Rin opened a box at random that contained glass baubles of different sizes and colors. He glanced over at Haru who had opened a box too. Somehow, he had jokingly thought that maybe there would be patterns of mackerel or dolphins on the decorations, or that all of them would be different hues of blue. The decorations were normal, though. The glass baubles were all sorts of colors like red, green, silver, gold and of course, there were blue ones. They hung them on the tree silently and at random, though Rin didn’t get bothered by the silence. Playing some sort of Christmas music would probably have been too much for his already too romantic heart. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of Rin humming a bit, too low for Haru to hear, he hoped. Even though none of them spoke, the atmosphere was great. The only thing that was left for it to feel like a real Christmas was snow, though you couldn’t have everything, Rin thought.

Once they had emptied all the boxes with glass baubles, all that’s left was the glitter to be put on the tree. “All that’s left is the glitter” Rin said with a grin. “Yeah” Haru simply replied. Rin was the first one to move and rummaged through the box that the glitter was in. There were all sorts of colors, but his favorite was red and he grabbed that together with silver colored. Haru hadn’t even made a move and so Rin thought it was up to him to do the final decoration. He draped it around the tree, which took a several minutes considering the size of that tree.

When he was finished he stepped back and admired his work. Glancing at Haru he said “This looks nice, right?” Only to find Haru stand with crossed arms and an annoyed look on his facce. He glared at Rin and said “No.” sternly. “Huh? Why?” Rin said in confusion. “That” Haru took a pause “does not look good. It should be blue and silver instead. Also, you’ve just draped the glitter all over the tree.” Rin was stunned. This was something new. Did Haru care that much about such a thing as how the glitter on the tree was arranged? He also started to get a bit annoyed. Definitely, he thought the tree looked awesome the way he had done it. Rin simply pursed his lips and didn’t answer that.

Making his way to the tree, Haru yanked down all the glitter and put on the blue and silver instead. The way he wanted it. Not randomly strewn across the branches as Rin had done it. “What the fuck, Haru?!? Why are you changing it?” came Rin’s angry voice. Now Rin was seriously annoyed. Why did he just walk over and take down his awesome work? That jerk, he thought. Haru just glared at him and said “It didn’t look good, so I changed it. Got a problem with that?” “Yeah” he replied and gritted his teeth. By now, his excitement and joy was long gone. What had been a happy and fun thing to do together turned out into a full-blown argument. They were both really stubborn and neither wanted to give in to let the other have his way.

Half an hour later, they still hadn’t come to any sort of agreement. Rin had mostly been talking in a loud angry voice and Haru had answered back with short, sharp replies. For a few minutes, they stopped arguing and simply stared at each other. That made Rin calm down a bit and he started thinking about how ridiculous this was. Of all the things that their first full blown argument was about, it had to be about the fucking glitter on the tree. The thought made Rin chuckle, and soon he couldn’t help laughing so much that tears streamed down on his face. Holding his hand to his stomach to try and stop himself from laughter, he glanced at Haru in front of him. The look on Haru’s face made him laugh even harder.

Haru’s eyes were wide in shock and he just stared at him, though Rin could see in his eyes that the anger had washed away completely. It took a while for him to stop laughing, but when he did he said “Don’t you think this is funny? That we’re having a full-blown argument about the fucking glitter on the Christmas tree?” and grinned. “Yeah, let’s just put blue, red and silver on it...” he replied and smiled softly.

Rin then closed the distance between them and circled his arms around Haru’s slightly smaller waist. For a few moments, they just embraced each other tightly. Haru nuzzled into the crook of Rin’s neck., but then Rin snaked one hand into Haru’s jet-black hair and pulled lightly. Understanding what Rin wanted, Haru simply leaned back a little to make Rin get some acess. Rin closed the distance between their faces and kissed Haru sweetly. Breaking away from the kiss, he whispered into Haru’s ear “Merry Christmas” “Merry Christmas” Haru replied softly, distracted by Rin’s mouth that had started to graze the skin on his neck.  

 

 

             


End file.
